Notes & essays.
Things I'm learning, building, and thinking about.
Learning: Theory and Practice
Through a lot of my early life, I’ve absorbed all the knowledge theoretically. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’ve often left feeling that I haven’t actually learned it. Now I try to follow the mantra that I won’t really know it until I try it. Once I have an idea I try to validate it. If […]
Enjoy The Little Things
One of the more important things that I’ve learned throughout my life is that you don’t have to do something grandiose to be happy. Enjoy the process, the little things that are there daily. It sounds much easier to do than it actually is. Sunrise on a clear morning is one of the prettiest things that […]
Cost Of Doubts
Doubts are very powerful emotions. They make you stop acting. They catch you as if a spider catches a fly in its spiderweb. You’re stuck. Doubts can be good if they help you rethink your lifestyle choices and eventually help you make a decision. For example, if you were doing something that you shouldn’t be […]
Permission to Create
Going through school, university and the typical education system we learn that we have to get permission to do something. If we want to do a project we have to ask someone first if it fits the grade standards. If we want to do specific coursework, we must make sure that it suits the class […]
We’re All Different
I think of myself as someone who can live with uncertainty fairly well. I don’t panic straight away if something’s not exactly as I want it to be. However, I’ve learned that it’s not the case with everyone. We have the tendency to assume that everyone sees the world in the exact way as we […]
Practical Financial Advice: More Money, Same Lifestyle
I’ve learned that the most obvious advice on how you can save money is to not “enhance” your lifestyle when you earn more. Once you get a pay-rise the point is not to instantly buy that new car you always wished of. It’s very common for people to start spending more as soon as they […]
Survivorship Bias or Why You Shouldn’t Trust Successful People’s Advice
We love hearing stories about successful people, how did they do it. We hope that we can repeat these habits and reap the same benefits. However, there’s no certainty that if we do what they did, we’ll have the same rewards. We tend to ignore all the unsuccessful people and focus on the ones that […]
Beginner’s Mind is The Key to Rapid Learning
Come into a conference, hear about a topic that you’re completely familiar with and think “Ahh, this is a waste of time, they’re not telling me anything new”. Have you ever been in this situation? Well, that was (and still is) me quite often. Over the years though, I’ve learned how to silence the thought, […]
The Way You Ask Questions is Important
Asking good questions is one of the most valuable skill you can have. A good use of it makes you able to learn much more and much quicker. Beginner’s Mind Before we dive into questions themselves, let’s discuss an important concept that I’ve learned about – Beginner’s Mind. It comes from Zen and it is […]
What’s SEO? A Brief Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about making sure that you rank the best (amongst the first results) on a search engine. It’s as much art as it is a skill. The idea behind it is so that people could find your business online at the point when they’re looking for something specific. I’ve completed Rand Fishkin’s […]
The Reality of Irrationality
Over the past couple of years, I read a lot of books regarding how humans think and their irrationality. Some of them are: Predictably Irrational, Influence, Thinking Fast and Slow and Factfulness. All of these books are great. They show how we make decisions and why they’re often not rational at all. If you haven’t read any […]
The Benefits of Journaling
I’m a bit of a productivity freak. I spent quite a bit of my time measuring how well did I complete my tasks, how long it takes me to complete them, etc. I’m always keen to learn how I can do something better. Initially, I thought that everyone’s like that. Everyone wants to do everything […]
How to Learn a New Skill in 20 Hours
Learning new skills is actually not that difficult. You just have to persevere for 20 hours and you’ll have the basic level of the skill. This sounds borderline absurd, right? It’s true though. I’m sure that you can remember moments from your life where you magically learn a new skill on the fly. If you […]
A Quick Glance at Gamification
When working on a project, I was forced to dive a bit deeper into gamification. Initially I thought it’s just adding some points and badges, but in reality it’s much more complex and there are many more parts to it. The purpose of gamification is to help you get motivated to complete tasks in life […]
4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Focus
Throughout our lives we go through many phases. Initially we just have fun and don’t worry about anything, but as we grow up we have to learn to follow rules and focus on particular tasks. Life makes us learn the skill of concentration and deep focus. That’s what school is for, right? Having just read […]
7 Tips to Become a Better Learner
This is obvious to many, but I found it personally difficult to perceive that people learn in different ways – some take less time, some take more for exactly the same task. I do believe that genetics and the environment you grew up in affects the way you learn, however there are some tips and […]
The World Is Not As Gloomy As You Think
The reason why travelling is amazing is because it gives you the ability to expand your worldview. It allows you to see your past preconceptions, see a different side of the world. When you travel to different countries you realise that people are much nicer than you initially thought. Strangers quickly become friends and all it […]